A New England Convention. 5. If a man steps 2 ft. 8 in. each step, and a boy steps 1 ft. 6 in. each step, and the boy makes 8 steps while the man is making 6 steps; how far FOR a number of years the American Institute will the boy walk while the man is walking four has held its annual meetings in various parts of and one-half miles ? our country, calling together a large number of 6. What is the interest of $96.40, at 6 per cent., the best teachers and educators in the land. This from June 12, 1857, to April 6, 1858 ? is all very well, and we cordially hope for its con7. If the cargo of a ship be worth $1248, and if tinuance, though our nationality may at present 3-4 of 8-9 of 5-16 of the ship be worth 2-3 of 7-8 of 9-16 of the cargo; what would be the value of the ship and cargo? suffer discord and civil war, thereby impeding and fearfully weakening its efficiency. In addition to this why may we not have a New England conven8. A merchant had his note of $812.595 for 90 tion sometime during the next summer vacation, days, discounted; with the money he purchased when we may meet practical, live men and woflour at $8 per barrel. After keeping the flour 30 men from every district of our beloved Puritan days, he sold it for cash at $8.50 per barrel. The New England, whose hearts are warm with the money received for the flour was on interest until love of their work as leaders of the young. This the note was due. What did he gain? 9. A merchant invested $1610 in trade. At the end of a year he found he had gained $835.20; what per cent. did he gain on the sum invested? 10. In a right angled triangle, the sum of its three sides is 60 feet; the shortest side is 15 feet; what is the length of the other two sides? Editors' Department. THE following contributions have been received in compliance with a resolution passed at a recent meeting of the Rhode Island Institute of Instruction, held at Carolina Mills, for the relief of the sick and wounded soldiers: John J. Ladd, Classical Department High School, Providence...... F. B. C. Davis, Public School, Westerly... Mr. G, M. Bently, Pub. School. Hopkinton, Miss S. M. Lillibridge, Public School, Richmond. Mr. A. A. Lillibridge.......do.........do. $5.55 1 16 55 3 00 42 1 25 91 35 might be carried out with little effort on the part of the educational journals, first calling the attention of our friends to the matter, and then a board of two or three from each State may be appointed. to make more definite plans for its completion. In regard to the place of holding it, of course some central portion should in justice be selected, say Worcester or Springfield; or if it should be deemed advisable to meet nearer the cool winds of the Atlantic, thereby adding luxury to profit, let it be holden at Salem or Portland or New Bedford or Boston or Newport. To us this seems practicable and really necessary, as a stronger bond of union should be formed, as well as a more uniform system of teaching, among the many excellent laborers of our land. At this meeting let the more ordinary themes of school labor be freely discussed,- those topics which seldom find their way into the elaborate and finely woven lectures of the times. Those points of perplexity which are ever staring the beginner, as well as the silver-haired teacher, in the face, should be fully discussed as well as those principles which, in practice, make a good school-room laborer as well as a splendid theorist. We have all learned that it is one thing to draw out on canvas a model school, where each varied disposition and peculiar temperament are made to harmonize with beautiful symmetry; where the lights and shades of teacher and pupil blend with such unclouded beauty as to charm the eye;-but to tread the path of the thickly populated school-room six days out of the seven, amid the frequent vicissitudes of climate, subject to the many physical derangements peculiar to teacher and scholar alike, taking, now and then, family jars $27 19 into the school-room, which must be hermetically sealed or make the pickle worse, is quite another. Do we not need to learn something more of our 12 40 16 22 THE SEMI-ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON MUSIC, of Boston, has been forwarded to us by the politeness of J. D. Philbrick, Esq., the selves? Why is it that the remark has grown to a worthy and very efficient superintendent of the truth, that the teacher's life is shorter by twenty-five public schools of that city. We have read the re- years provided the profession is followed exclusiveport with somewhat of care and much interest ty? Is it the poison of the rooms which consumes There are many points of interest in this report the vitality, like the metallic odor of the steel powhich deserve more than a passing notice. We shall hope to bring it before our readers at length lisher's shop? Is it overstrained mental effort? Is it a want of sympathy from the outer world, in a future number. thus freezing the current of warm life in the soul? pleased to feel that though treason and sedition What is that magic spell by which one calms the still lurk in the whitening locks and furrowed surges of school-room troubles, while another rais- cheeks of declining years, that in the boys and es the same at his coming? girls of to-day we have a glorious picture of true love and devotion to country. There is a good time coming, the boys and girls will soon walk the stage, while traitors ingloriously sleep. Will our educational journalists think of this subject, and give us their views as to its possibility. Let us arouse to greater energy in the cause. We want to see the live fish going up the stream; let the dead ones float, and the fossils sleep. Evening Schools. MR. H. M. RICE has been appointed successor to Lieut. H. R. Pierce, (now an officer in the Burnside rifle battallion) as principal of the Woonsocket High School. This is the right man in the THERE are now in the city of Providence six right place. Mr. Rice is a fine scholar and an esevening schools, in various parts of the city. In timable citizen. Friend Rice, we are glad to conthese schools pupils of all ages are admitted, where tinue our relations to you as a Rhode Island teachers from the day schools are employed to instruct them reading, writing, arithmetic, spelling, &c. teacher. WE would call attention to the advertisement They come from the factory or shop with a deep of Mr. John L. shorey, the enterprising publisher thirst for learning. We are satisfied that this is a of an excellent series of Readers. noble movement on the part of our Council, and will tell in years long distant in the future. The session of these schools begins at seven and closes at nine o'clock. As you enter the room you see a teacher with a class of boys teaching them to read and spell; in another direction a large boy is working out an example in long division; another part, a kitchen girl is spelling out words of two or three letters with an ardor and zeal quite unusual. Many boys come, at first, for a pastime, but most work with a commendable zeal. The Penny Contribution. Our Book Table. POTTER & HAMMOND'S ANALYTICAL, SYNTHETI- Once more we call the attention of our readers to this important subject. Penmanship, as taught in most of our schools, is not what it should be. In fact, we are sometimes inclined to believe that while advance has been made in almost every department, there has been a retrograde movement in regard to writing. True, all the pupils learn to We hope the teachers in the various schools in write, or are supposed to, but we candidly believe the State are not forgetting the resolutions passed that the number who acquire even a legible hand, by the Institute at Carolina Mills, last month. is very small, while the bold, plain, copper-plate That many are not we have had pleasing proofs. style of years ago is hardly seen. In the days of Many little penny mites, given by tiny hands, are our grandfathers, those who wrote at all wrote finding their way to the treasury. Who would not well; would that we could say the same now, but encourage this beautiful principle of patriotic be- the universal practice of scribbling forbids. It nevolence and self-denial? Who would deny to might seem that the great merit of writing, as an the little school pupil this unmingled joy in after art, at the present day, consisted in making it ilyears which shall come welling up as the story of legible. Now, where is the fault, and where shall our country's struggle is told by the hearthstone improvement commence? Unquestionably in the of children's children? Do you say it is too small, school-room, and at the hands of teachers. Teachonly a drop in the bucket? So it is only drops ers must first be aroused to the importance of the that bear our mighty navies on to victory and con- subject, and study the best means of teaching it quest. Nurture true benevolence in the bud, and correctly. Some uniform system is needed, and you shall see the spirit adding far more beauty to the want of such a system has been felt for a long the opening flower. Ye who have become so sor- time. Such a want no longer exists. Messrs. did and selfish in the pursuit of personal wealth Potter & Hammond have, in their series of writas to feel no sympathy for your needy country or ing-books, illustrated the principles that belong to her excellent defenders, while we mourn your de- the subject, as a science, so fully and plainly that generate, ice-clad soul, we pray you do not smoul- any teacher ought to be able to communicate the der the sparks of patriotic benevolence in the youth. same to his pupils, and if any pupil will faithfully From one little school in an extreme part of the carry into practice those principles, he cannot fail State we have received fifty-five big round pennies, of becoming a good penman. This series has been one from each, and with each mite a little wish for improved during the past summer, and many imthe glory and perpetuity of our beloved land. The portant changes have been made, so that they may teacher assures us that the true spirit of loyalty is now be considered as among the things we desigseen in the life of these little donors. We are nate by the term PERFECT. LANGUAGE. For the use of Schools. By Simon Kerl, A. M. Published by Phinney, Blakeman & Co., New York. METHOD OF CLASSICAL STUDIES: Illustrated by A COMPREHENSIVE GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH Questions on a few Selections from Latin and Greek Authors. By Samuel H. Taylor, LL. D., Principal of Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass. The author of this little book is a teacher of long We have perused with constant pleasure and proexperience, who seems to have impressed himself fit this new work, which gives evidence on every on the present generation of New England men in page of being the result of a thorough knowledge of a remarkable manner. He here offers us a slight the structure of the English language, and also insight into his method of teaching the Latin and how best to communicate that knowledge to the Greek languages. Producing a few lines from the student. text of Esop's Fables, Nepos, Cicero, Virgil, Xe- In its matter the work does not differ much from nophon, and Homer, he shows us, to a certain ex- other grammars, except that it has more and that tent, how he would conduct the recitation, were much of it is fresh from the original sources of these passages the lesson of the day. Only the the science. In the arrangement of the subject formal recitation questions are presented, but these the author has accomplished an important item are so abundant, thorough and searching, that no for the learner. Each part is complete in itself, teacher could fail to profit by their study. To the and even should the pupil acquire a thorough first Fable of Esop, "Accipiter et Columbae," knowledge of only one section, that will be a perwhich comprises five lines, are attached over a manent acquisition to him. hundred and thirty questions, and to the first line We assure the teachers of Rhode Island that of the Iliad over thirty. These seem to be an ex- they will be much more successful in teaching cellent selection from the innumerable stock which language after studying Kerl's Grammar. could be invented. It is easy for the teacher to fall into routine in his questions, and this book will furnish new ideas and incite to greater penetration into the mysteries of ancient etymology and syntax. A special excellence of the book is that it recognizes the personality of the ancient authors themselves. It defines them somewhat, For further notice of the author's works we refer teachers to the advertisement of Phinney, Blakeman & Co., in the December number. D. THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY for January, 1862, has been received. This number begins the ninth volume of this truly national magazine. The fact of dates them, and fixes them in a mentionable peri- its constantly increasing circulation is an evidence od of history, where they are organic, and signifi- of the hold it has already acquired on the favor of cant as Cicero and Xenophon, besides furnishing the American public. The present number gives materials for mere grammatical study. S. T. evident signs of greater vigor than has characterized it before. No magazine has shown more zeal STUDENT AND SCHOOLMATE and Forester's Boys' and interest or has rendered more signal labor in and Girls' Magazine. A Reader for Schools and the putting down of the gigantic rebellion. The Families. Wm. T. Adams, (Oliver Optic) Editor. Galen James & Co., publishers, No. 15 life of the republic and the best interest of the naCornhill, Boston. tion require of literature a manly and generous action, and the Atlantic has commanded the talents of the most vigorous writers in behalf of our beloved country. What it has done so well, it will do in the future. We have no exchange on our list that is more welcome to us than the Student and Schoolmate. The January number for 1862 is received, and so enchanting are its articles that we can hardly engage in anything else until we have read the last Prof. L. Agassiz is to contribute a series of artiword of the last page. A little boy of five sum-cles to the columns of the Atlantic during the year. mers, by our side, is as deeply interested in the stoLEWIS'S GYMNASTIC MONTHLY AND JOURNAL ries as ourself. Among the numerous monthlies OF PHYSICAL CULTURE. Dio Lewis, M. D., edifor children this has attained a rank second to tor. January, 1862. This is dressed in entirely a none. The publishers offer great inducements to clubs. For two names and $2.00, they will send new form and greatly improved. The quality of as a premium a bound volume of the Student and paper and type is fine, and it is altogether a valuaSchoolmate for 1861, or a copy of " Little by Little," ble manual, containing, as we doubt not it will, all a capital story of 280 pages, by Oliver Optic. For five names and $5.00, Harpers' Illustrated Weekly; or, if desired, they will send any other paper of the same price. For twelve names and $12.00,| Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, illustrated edition. Extraordinary Club Rates: Two copies one year, $1.75; four copies, $3.00; six copies, $4.00; ten copies, $6.00; twenty copies, $11; fifty copies, $25.00. Bound volumes for 1861 can be obtained for one dollar. the regulations and rules for a thorough course of physical culture. It is within the means of every one-$1.00 per year, or three copies for $2.00, five for $3.00, ten for $5.00. Dr Lewis has established a new era in the life of man. He is a pioneer in one of the most important of sciences. WE have received the Fifteenth Annual Catalogue of the Officers and Students of the People's Academy, Morrisville, Vermont, for the academic year ending November 20th, 1861. . The R. J. Schoolmaster. FEBRUARY, 1862. VOLUME EIGHT, For the Schoolmaster. Notes on Spelling. NUMBER TWO, at the end of a year, the learner is to go on to read in common print, the change is made gradually, yet rapidly, so that it is asserted by the I was much pleased, a few days ago, at hearfriends of this system, that if a child is taught ing a boy, a little over five years old, read and to spell phonetically first, and then by the comspell with fluency in common English prose mon way, he will not only be a better speller printed in phonetic characters. Scarcely a year than common, at the end of a given time, but ago, having never learned the common alphabet, will be better prepared to make a good reader. he had commenced to spell and soon after to read The advantages of this system would be reapaccording to the phonetic method; having now ed by the million, the disadvantages would be attained considerable proficiency therein, he was felt by but few; for, while all find it hard to passing on to spell in the common English print. spell, but few know anything of the roots of What a pity! said I. For the irksome task of the language, and then it is doubtful whether spelling, by the common method never completed, would, in this way, be nearly finished at the end of the first year. This boy's ear is now quick and accurate; how dull and deadened it may be two years hence. The connection between the vocal sounds and the characters now seems to him close and clear; then it will be obscure and perplexing. more roots would be obscured or be brought out by the process. Its advantages are practical, certain; its disadvantages uncertain and visionary; for a great expenditure of time and of labor is saved, as well as a great tax on the memory, to be lavished on other objects, and with greater profit to the pupil. Still the community refuses to adopt phonetics, and we must go on teaching the common alphabet the best way we can. In the phonetic alphabet, there being a character for each sound in the language, forty-three letters are found. The child who is to learn to Call, then, the little ones, who have just en, spell, is told to look at the mouth of the teacher tered the school and are to learn the alphabet, and to notice the sound he makes; the pupil to you, speaking a pleasant word to each and notes the sound and imitates it as well as he encouraging the timid ones. Chat with them to can. The character representing the sound is awaken a desire in them to learn their letters; now printed for him, and the sound is repeated do not forget this; it is important. Now show by the teacher, then by the scholar. The learn- them a large letter, A; let all look at it carefully, er is then taught to print the character himself, to Would they like to know its name and will recognize it in a book, and to find it on a block, they try to remember it? It is A. Who can among others. Then the successive sounds and tell its name? What do you think it is? And characters are taught in the same manner. The you, and you? That is very well. Now all next step is to combine two or more sounds say, A. But let me print this letter on the board. by rapidly uttering, one after another, several See: one straight line thus; another so, and a sounds, making thereby monosyllabic words. third across. Who can print the letter A on His onward course in spelling is now easy. If, the board? Well, John, you may try, and you, too, James. Very well done. What is the former syllable; and so on through the word. name of the letter? That will do for this time. It is not easy after having spelled a word in Having, in a similar manner, taught them B this way to mispronounce it. For the learner and C, place the three letters thus far learned, knows how to pronounce each syllable and has printed on blocks or on paper, on the table, and the proper order of their succession; these points let them try to pick out B, C, A. This will with the accent determine the pronunciation of stimulate them. Go on in this way, till the the word. Often when an error is made in prowhole alphabet is learned, alternately using the nouncing a word, it arises from uncertainty with printed alphabet, printing yourself and asking regard to the succession of the syllables. When the name of the letter, giving the name for them you give out a word, if the scholar through into print, holding up separate letters picked at attention does not understand you, pass the random from a pile and asking the name, or re- word to the next. If he misspells the word, questing them to pick out D, or M, or O, from without allowing him a second chance, pass the a confused mass of letters. word to the next. To allow a boy to try more The next step is to teach the spelling and the than once in spelling a word, encourages poor pronunciation of monosyllables. And now the preparation of lessons, guessing and inaccuracy. difficulties connected with our alphabet begin, Some teachers put out a word to a pupil, and, and the child finds it is really a hard thing to whether it be spelled correctly or not, another learn to spell. Could a lad of eighteen be given word is at once put out to the second pupil, the two tasks; the one to learn Andrews and Stod-teacher keeping the run of the mistakes. Any dard's Latin Grammar from cover to cover; the scholar, now, is at liberty, after having spelled other to learn, for the first time, how to spell kis own word, to correct any mistake or misforty thousand of the more purely literary words takes he may have noticed. Some allow any of our language; would he accept the easier task, he would make choice of the grammar. scholar who notices a mistake to raise his hand and to correct it at once. Be sure to have the pupil who misses a word, re-spell it after it has been spelled correctly. It is well for each member of the class to keep an account of the words that he has missed, and at the commencement of the exercise, on the following day, re-spell them, either orally, or by writing them on the blackboard. Let us see what some of these difficulties are. 1. The same letter represents different sounds; example, the different sounds of a. 2. The same sound is represented by different letters and combinations of letters; example, a, ai, ay, ey. 3. Many letters are silent; example, gnomen; sign; phthisis, &c. It would cause less confusion in spelling were there no similarity bePronounce each syllable after spelling it, as it tween the names of the letters and the sounds should be pronounced in the whole word. Do which they represent. The occasional presence not, after having spelled the second syllable of and frequent absence of this similarity is the mor-ti-fy, pronounce with the long, ti. Do origin of the confusion. The learner gets con- not, in spelling garden, say, d-e-n, den; nor in fused, puzzled and inattentive. He is tired of the final syllable of menace, say, a-c-e, ace; spelling, dislikes school, vexes his teachers, and nor in judgment, munt. is lucky if, when ten years old, he is not utterly disgusted with books and studying. If you pass a word to the next when it is spelled incorrectly, do not make the syllable in Suppose that your pupils have taken their pla- which the mistake was made unduly emphatic. ces in the class to spell orally. The teacher, hav- If eminent is spelled with an e for the second ing prepared himself beforehand, (and scarcely syllable, do not, on passing it, say em-i-nent; any one can pronounce correctly the words in a nor, sta-tion-er-y, on passing it to the next. This would be indirect prompting. single column in a spelling book, without previous study) gives out a word for some one to Do not stop a scholar in the middle of a word, spell. The scholar first pronounces the word; just as he has misspelled a syllable, to pass the by this you know that he understands what word word to the next. Thus in spelling metallurgy; you gave out, and he gets its true pronunciation. if the spelling is, met-al-ur-, do not at once say, Any error, however slight, in respect to the "the next," but wait till the scholar has finished pronunciation should be corrected by the class spelling the word, and then say, “the next.” or by the teacher. Now he spells the first syl- Do not, also, smile, as a syllable is wrongly lable and pronounces it; the second and pro- spelled to do so is indirect prompting. nounces it by itself and then combined with the Do not, in giving out words to spell, always |